Matthew Chapter 12
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Matthew Chapter 12 (A House Divided)
Matthew Chapter 12 (A House Divided)
Intro:
We saw in the first half of chapter 12 how the Pharisees were so caught up in the law that they completely are missing the fact that God in the flesh, Christ is right in front of them. I thought James did an awesome explanation on why it’s important at not getting so caught up in the law, or getting so invested in dissecting and debating the bible that we end up steering away from what is important. Christ.
If obeying and living strictly by the law solely is our ticket to eternal life, we WILL be in a world of hurt, Only one in the flesh was able to live by the law and not break it, that was Christ. and through him is his love and forgiveness unto us and THE sacrifice for where we fall short.
Matthew Chapter 12 verse 22 to start us off.
Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
Jesus was among the multitudes. Remember, he entered the synagogue and healed the man on the Sabbath without even touching him.
So technically he did not break the law of the Sabbath, but the Pharisees still accused Him. So Jesus withdrawals from the synagogue and continues His ministry and healing unto the people.
And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?
Jesus is performing these miracles unto the “towns people” and without a doubt their witnessing these miracles not questioning this is Christ, the Messiah, but yet the Pharisees, the ones who held the law, couldn’t even see that.
These people of the city were recognizing prophecy being fulfilled, they recognized that Jesus was from the lineage prophesied through King David.
The kingdom of heaven was prophesied to come from David’s lineage, We can find this in 1st Chronicles chapters 2 and 4 but also was the intro for the book of Matthew and in the first chapter.
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
But what verse 23 in Matthew is telling us is the townsmen recognized this without question through Christs actions.
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Again, Jesus withdrew from the synagogue and now the Pharisees heard rumors of the people claiming Jesus to be the Son of God.
We looked at it a few chapters back, but Beelzebub, prince of devils, Today we see that name as Baal, being one of Satan’s princes, representing gluttony or envy.
But what is something to make note of here and also from verse 23, is that the Priests at this time couldn’t perform these great miracles that Christ was performing. that's why where it says in verse 23 “all the people were amazed”; They were amazed because they haven’t seen this level of divinity even from their own priests at the time.
The Pharisees are so blinded by the law alone, they feel threatened by Jesus’s works so they try to conflict Him.
And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
How did he know their thought? Because He is the son of God. God in the flesh.
And what He is saying is,
Nothing can be successful if it is divided, This is knowledge from Christ Himself.
Marriage, the church, the governing powers, the people of a nation, All of the above,
Nothing can be successful if it is divided against itself. The phrase, “divide and conquer”, this is what Christ is referencing here.
How many times do we feel in our lives that Satan is trying to divide the leaders or people of our nation, And a lot of times is successful.
How many times do we feel or see Satan trying to divide us from our family in our very homes? And again,sometimes he is successful, keep that thought
Let’s keep reading. We will see what Christ is leading to.
And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Christ is stating that if Satan is casting out Satan, he would be counteracting his own works at controlling the world.
If he is the ruler of demons, why would he be casting out demons,
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Jesus is turning the tables on the Pharisees, “by whom do your children cast them out?”
Children here can also be translated to disciples, “students”
Again, seeing the irony in this, if these priests at the time were going around casting out demons, Jesus is saying “are they too casting them out by Beelzebub?” This hitting on what James covered last lesson, the hypocritical side of the Pharisees. So caught up in the law and wanting to contradict Jesus, that they aren’t even paying attention to what THEY are doing and how its ironic.
They are trying to justify themselves rather than the word of God.
But the main issue here, Is that the Priests weren't and couldn’t even cast out demons and heal the sick the way Christ was.
The irony in this, and what Christ is leading to here.
If the Pharisees were truly serving God, and they still couldn’t cast out demons and such the way Christ was, and if Christ WAS performing these things as works under Satan, then that would mean Satan had the higher power over God.
Christ uses their own words against them, showing how either way THEY are in the wrong.
Again, they are so caught up in conflicting Christ, that their lies are even furthering Him being the Messiah.
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
What is Jesus saying here,
If Christ is casting out devils in the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is already here, showing how Jesus IS the kingdom of God , that son of David.
we saw in chapter 11 if you’ve seen the Son you've seen the Father,
Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
In order to cast out evil spirits, and Satan’s army, you would have to bind him first, THEN you could destroy Satan's works.
Satan is the strong man in this illustration here, How do we bind him?
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Something to make note of is with this verse here in 1st John.
“He that committeth sin is of the devil ” This is where like we talked about in previous chapters, you can’t twist the word of God to justify your lifestyle, you have to twist your lifestyle to the word of God,
As man in the flesh we are going to sin, but look at what it says in the second half of this verse,
“For the purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
Through the acceptance of Jesus Christ we are born again, we are no longer slaves to sin, but Satan bound by Christ. That sin bound by Christ.
Tieing this back to verse 26 talking about a house divided can’t be successful.
Satan can’t spoil or divide your house without first binding the strong man. Well guess what, If Christ is the strong man in your home, your life, your family, our country, then Satan can’t divide or spoil it.
Satan can’t bind Christ, that was the reason Christ was manifested like we read in 1st John chapter 3.
Keep Christ as the strongman of your life, your everything, and Satan can’t spoil or divide it.
It is very simple.
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Pay attention to that word “but” meaning “except for”
This is a big statement here from Christ. (the unpardonable sin)
Blasphemy means conflicting or evil speaking.
Blasphemy against men shall be forgiven but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall NOT.
Notice He says SHALL, not shouldn’t. SHALL means SHALL definite.
Verse 32 He just reiterates.
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
This is something we’ve covered in the past, we can have a whole lesson over this again if needed, but the way to commit the unpardonable sin, is when one of God’s elect is brought up unto the synagogue of Satan, and they deny the Holy Spirit during the final day of Judgement.
Revelations chapter 13 is where you will find the mark of the beast, just remember, you can’t have have the mark of the beast in your hand or in your forehead if instead you have the seal of God and the Holy Spirit in your hand and in your forehead, in other words in your mind and in your works.
Again, if anyone has any questions and we need to go back over it we can, because this is something we can really dig into and cover. It’s very important.
Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
What Christ is saying here, again ties back to the mark of the beast or the seal of God,
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Jesus is explaining this to the Pharisees,
Those who speak evil and think evil, bring forth evil.
In other words, in your mind, and through your works.
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
Furthering Matthew 7:17. Christ again simplifying it,
Me and my wife hold this saying close, “actions speak louder than words” That’s what Christ is saying here, “don’t tell me what I want to hear, Show me”
Don’t just talk about it, live by it.
Your actions are a true reflection of your heart. Not just the words you speak because the words you speak could be a lie,
Which leads to the very next verse here in Matthew
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
A couple of things I want to break down here in this verse.
G692 - Idle (argos) - unemployed;(by implication) lazy, useless: Barren
Those empty promises, or useless words we dish out, we WILL have to answer too during the final judgment.
Words that have no meaning or emptiness.
G2980 - speak (laleho) - to talk - utter words - to preach
Don’t just spread the light of the Lord by preaching it, Live by it, lead by example. don’t be lazy to it.
and remember, judgment starts at the pulpit, or those who claim to be teachers and those who are teachers; they will be judged more harshly,
That can be documented through James Chapter 3 if you wanted to note that down.
Don’t preach or spread God’s word through laziness and empty words, strive to live by example. And our Greatest example again, Christ.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Have meaning behind your words, don’t just speak out of emptiness.
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
Pay attention to what the Pharisees are asking here, they have been witnessing all these miracles performed by Christ like no other man, and yet they ask “wouldn’t we have a sign that your the Messiah?”
What is happening is they are being so blinded by themselves that they can’t even see the miracles being performed around them.
How often does this sound familiar in our own lives, I know I'm guilty of this very thing.
Getting so bared down in the things of this world, stress and anxiety from things around me that I will completely miss the blessings taking place because I get too caught up in the flesh mindset and not my relationship with Christ.
Don’t be blinded by the things in this world, keep Christ as our main focus and you will start seeing those signs of Him performing miracles in our lives.
It’s not about praying for signs from God, if we can just focus on growing that relationship with Him, a lot of times those signs have been their all along, we just get blinded by the ways of the flesh.
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
First of all no sign will be given to this generation because Christ is standing face to face with them and they still don't recognize Him, but the one sign they will be given later on is referenced to Jonas,
Jonas name meaning A dove, The prophet Jonah, and remember when Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, a dove came down, the dove is a representation of the Holy Spirit,
Again showing how God’s plan has been written even with Jonas name and story would be used as a sign of Christ’s story,
But why Jonas? What’s his story?
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Recap on Jonas, He is commanded by God to enter and go to Nineveh but tries to board a ship and flee, trying to escape God’s calling. On this ship a storm came about and Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a giant fish, in the belly of this giant fish, after 3 day’s Jonah finally repents from his sin of trying to flee from God’s plan in his life, and the fish spits him back out onto dry land.
All of this is in the book of Jonah in the old testament. Again, we will get there when we get there if you want to read ahead,
But anyway, this is compared to the Son of man, Christ’s story being in the tomb for three days and three nights, you see the comparison here.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
As we go through and read through the book of Jonas, to recap, the men of Nineveh were the ones who God was sending Jonas to preach to and perform his works. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Assyrians being made up of the “enemy” of God’s people at the time, which again this is just a brief overview, we will get there, but They actually ended up repenting and turning towards God after hearing the preaching’s from Jonas,
And there is a greater before the Pharisees, this is Christ, and if Jonas can help turn the hearts of men toward God how much more can the Messiah?
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
The queen of the south referring to Queen of Sheba, She was the Arabian queen that brought valuable gifts to Solomon and visited him to hear his wisdom, This is documented in 1st Kings chapter 10, and 2 Chronicles chapter 9
But Christ is using her as an example to the Pharisees here to show the contrast between them and her, these Pharisees are refusing to accept wisdom from a man much greater than Solomon, again, Christ,
He is giving them yet another example.
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Remember the swine back in Matthew chapter 5, the demons were cast into the herd of swine and they ran down and drowned themselves.
Christ is explaining that very circumstance here to the Pharisees.
Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished
Think about this for a second,
When someone has been cleansed from evil or corruption, it’s easy for that evil and corruption to re fill that space,
That is what we are seeing here from an evil spirits point of view,
If a dwelling is un occupied, guess what, something will fill the space,
Just like a hotel room, you can clean it up get it ready, but if it is vacant, it can be filled with whoever even those that would trash the place again,
Christ is telling them that once that evil has been cleansed out of a person, then the Holy Spirit has to fill that void that is there, if not, sin will slide in again and take over. Why do you think Satan is often depicted of a serpent? Slithering his corruption into vacant hearts.
I think we went over this on a Thursday night study, but there is no maybe for the kingdom of heaven.
There is good vs bad, Holy vs unholy, Righteous vs unrighteous, you can’t sit in the middle or on the sidelines. If you do, Satan and his army will be there to fill that space where Christ should be.
Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
So think of how sin often leads into a domino effect in our lives,
“oh its only one little white lie”, or “it’ll just be this one time” for whatever the case may be, next thing you know, your way off the path and away from your relationship with God. and it all started with that one little tiny sin.
That is Christ’s words of wisdom here, it is easy for sin to be a domino effect leading to larger and worse wickedness.
Notice He uses the example of 7 spirits.
7 in biblical numeric meaning spiritual completeness
If you’re not careful, these wicked things will completely spiritually take over.
While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
While Jesus was preaching to the people and the Pharisee’s his mother, Mary, and also some of His siblings were here as well.
So Christs physical family was here listening to him preach.
But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
Remember back in verse 30 what Christ tells them,
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Christ is not nullifying the importance of our physical family, But more so emphasizing emphasizing the the greater importance of our spiritual family.
Remember, our dedication and loyalty to Christ is higher than our immediate family loyalties,
And people may ask, “well isn't our duty to raise our family” YES, the word of God even lays out a perfect guideline for how to raise a family,
But if we follow the guidelines given on how to raise a physical family, then our physical family will be apart OF our spiritual journey and spiritual family.
Again, Christ gives us a perfect example to follow, all His steps work together cognitively
It is just up to us with our free will to follow.
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
What we see here in Romans is just re explaining what Christ is saying here, freedom from the condemnation is through Christ, shifting the focus from life under the law, to life under the Holy Spirit. Those who have life under the Holy spirit, are spiritually brothers, sisters unto Christ, a family.
Let the Holy Spirit lead your life, the law wasn’t done away with, it was fulfilled By Christ, the living word.
Conclusion:
But something to take away from Christ confronting the Pharisees, seeing that house divided,
We see Him explain how Satan and his army like to divide and conquer, and the only way for Satan to take over your life or your home, is if he first binds the strongman of the home.
The strong man of your home isn’t the husband, it isn’t the mother, it isn’t the grandfather,
It should be Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. and He even explains how through Him, He already bound Satan. Satan can’t bind Christ because Christ has already won.
and we see how even the smallest sin can lead to a dominoes effect that can lead to much larger wickedness and separate you from Christ.
But to me, the thing that spoke to me the most during this lesson was how
As children of Christ, we should come together with one another the same way we do with our mothers, sisters, brothers, because we are a Spiritual family, unified not by our bloodline, but through the Blood of Jesus being shed for each and every one of us.
Unified under the Holy spirit as God’s children. At the end of the day whether your Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, whatever denomination, we are all brothers and sisters under Christ and should treat everyone with that same love and respect.
Matthew Chapter 12 (A House United)
Matthew Chapter 12 (A House United)
